Thiessen leads WBS Penguins to shutout of Bears

WILKES-BARRE TWP. - Maybe Brad Thiessen is the man to lead the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins out of the wilderness.

The fourth-year goaltender made 23 saves Saturday night as the Penguins edged the Hershey Bears, 1-0, at the Mohegan Sun Arena. The Penguins have won just two games since Christmas, but both of those victories were Thiessen shutouts.

"He made all the saves he should have made and he made some he shouldn't have," coach John Hynes said. "That's when you have a really good chance to win hockey games."

A few weeks ago, the idea of a Thiessen-led resurgence would have been scoffed at.

After winning AHL goalie of the year honors in 2011, he has spent the last season-plus struggling to keep his goals-against average below 3.00 and his save percentage over .900.

Those struggles have been nowhere to be found in the last four games, however. Thiessen's numbers during that stretch are stellar.

He was at his best in the third period Friday night, helping the Penguins maintain the narrowest of leads while killing a pair of penalties. Most notably, he went post-to-post to take a Ryan Potulny shot off his mask with 9:25 left and kept his glove on a puck Garrett Mitchell had stuffed into the crease with 46.5 seconds to go.

"I feel good about my game," Thiessen said.

In the second period, Beau Bennett took a pass at the left faceoff circle, drew in two defenders and dished to Brian Dumoulin at the point. Dumoulin skated toward the center of the ice and sent a shot past a Jayson Megna screen and inside the right post at 12:57.

The Penguins were 3 for 69 on the power play in their previous 14 games.

"That was important, especially for us to get the lead," Dumoulin said. "That was big. We've been struggling. We wanted to keep it simple and get pucks to the net. That's what we did. We had good puck retrievals in the zone and we were able to get our shots through."

It was the only goal for the Penguins, who have scored just 10 times in their last nine games, but it was enough.

"We've been playing good hockey. We just haven't been rewarded for it and we haven't scored as many goals as we would have liked," Thiessen said. "We only got the one tonight, but when you don't let in any, that's all you need."

With NHL players expected to officially ratify a new collective bargaining agreement today, leading to the opening of training camps Sunday, a flurry of transactions is expected around the AHL.

The movement started Friday as Eric Tangradi and Simon Despres were scratched in anticipation of their imminent call-up to Pittsburgh. Hynes said he expects three or four more players to join them, but he didn't know if they would leave town before or after tonight's game.

"We talked about having a complete team effort and giving guys different opportunities, which will continue to occur particularly over the next couple weeks with all the change and transition that will probably go on," Hynes said. "It's a good first step for us."

Contact the writer: jbombulie@citizensvoice.com

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